Crime & Social Control

Lecture 11

Informal social control

Any non-official type of control exercised for violating norms, laws, folkways, or anything someone else deems inappropriate

Formal social control

An official type of control exercised for violating the policy, rules, laws, or regulations of a formal body

Law enforcement officials

Exist to enforce laws, protect people and property, and to prevent crime and civil disorder

Criminal courts

Exist to ensure laws are executed fairly and with due process

Prisons

Exist to ensure punishments are enforced and public safety is upheld

Durkheim

• Structural functionalism

  • When it comes to crime this perspective would argue that laws and crime are important for reaffirming society’s beliefs and reinforcing social norms and solidarityM

Merton’s strain theroy

• Robert Merton 1938

  • People adapt to inconsistencies between the goals in society and the means to obtain them. When there are no legitimate means to obtain culturally defined goals this creates strain

5 adaptations to strain

• Conformity

• Innovation

• Ritualism

• Retreatism

• Rebellion

Conformity

Individuals accept the culturally defined goals and the legitimate means to obtain them

Innovation

Accept culturally defined goals but not the legitimate means of achieving them - most associated with criminal behaviour

Ritualism

Accept the legitimate means of achieving goals but do not accept the traditional goals

Retreatism

Rejects both the culturally accepted goals and the means of achieving them 

Rebellion

Rejects both the culturally accepted goals and the means of achieving them, difference from retreatists is that they replace them with a new goal and new means

Code of the street

An informal set of rules governing interpersonal public behaviour, particularly violence, in impoverished urban neighbourhoods. The code emphasizes respect, toughness, and retaliation

Stigma & marginalization

Residents of these neighbourhoods are looked down on by mainstream society

Institutional diverstment

A lack of good social services, a lack of economic opportunity, a lack of education as a realistic option, a sense of relative deprivation, and a sense that society has abandoned the residents of the neighbourhood or, in other words, that society doesn’t care

Oppositional culture

A culture that arises in response to a systemic marginalization and exclusion, where traditional norms and values are rejected in favour of alternative ones that emphasize autonomy and toughness

Police as outsiders

Residents view the police as ineffective, biased, or hostile, leading to resilance on the street code for self-regulation

Violence as a means of social regulation

In the absence of effective law enforcement and trust in formal institutions, violence becomes a way to resolve disputes and enforce the code

Juice (aka respect)

A central element of the street code, respect is a form of social capital that individuals must earn and protect. Disrespect can lead to violence to restore one’s standing

Hypermasculinity

A heightened form of masculinity that emphasizes dominance, aggression, and control as necessary traits to navigate the street environment

Manhood

The ability to protect oneself and ones loved ones

Cycles of violence

Where ones act of violence if responded to with more acts of violenceHu

Hustles

Schemes to make money such as theft or drug sales

Alturism

Selfless concern for the well-being of others

Insider trading

The illegal practice on the stock market of trading to one’s own advantage through having access to confidential information